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In part 1 of this interview with Forbes.com, Trion Worlds CEO Scott Hartsman discussed the rise of free to play mechanics in massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMOs), and how his company adapted by making its flagship games - Rift and Defiance - free to play after launch. In part 2, we discussed the upcoming launch of ArcheAge, the new game, and new intellectual property, from the MMO legend and creator of Lineage Jake Song.

Absolutely

This is Scott Hartsman’s response when asked whether free-to-play could provide more stability of revenue in the long term. However, in the west at least, MMOs are still generally expected to launch with some sort of payment up front - whether a retail price or a subscription fee. In part, this is about financial planning, but it is also about prestige. “Free to play” has a bad reputation, thanks to a mass of browser-based and mobile games that draw players in, then impose arbitrary restrictions on players and require payment to become playable.

Wail to prepare, prepare to wail - the banshee, from the upcoming ArcheAge

However, Trion Worlds’ next title - ArcheAge - will be free to play from launch. Developed by XL Games, the studio set up by Jake Song, creator of the legendary Lineage, after he left NCSoft, ArcheAge has just entered closed beta. This is being run as a series of events designed to test the technical infrastructure and gameplay systems, running alongside an ongoing alpha - the next launches on August 30.

The way Archeage works - it will be free to play. We're on the cusp of the closed beta. People who want to kick in can buy premium supporter packs - gold, silver or archeum membership. But when the game launches it will be free to play.

These packs run in cost from $50 for Silver to a startling $150 for Archeum, and each contains, along with access to the beta, a range of benefits that will be delivered to the player when the game is launched - some aesthetic, to show off the early-bird status of the player, and others very practical. The betas are filled up with randomly selected applicants, who enter without payment. Hartsman insists that nobody will be disadvantaged by not having laid out the dollars for founder status once the game launches.

Nothing is required from our preorder stuff - you’ll be able to come into the game and play it and have a fantastic experience. It's not nerfed, it's not downgraded. But if you're a supporter, you'll definitely have some extra things to play with. and that's OK!"

“That’s OK” is a statement of intent; purists insist that the only acceptable sales within games should be aesthetic "flair", and that as soon as superior performance can be bought, “free to play” slides into “pay to win”. Trion Worlds’ position is, rather, that time and money should be to some extent interchangeable commodities - so that a player can spend money to make up for the time a friend might have ploughed into the game, and still be able to adventure together.

Playing in the Sandpark

ArcheAge - set in a fantasy world of elves and magic - will also offer players an optional subscription, which will deliver benefits every month, and in-game purchases. But what’s the draw? Fantasy worlds in particular have to fight to differentiate themselves in the MMO space. From above, the space is occupied by the 900-pound gorilla that is World of Warcraft, which still absorbs a huge number of potential players despite its mandatory monthly subscription through social momentum. From below, and often in more or less shameless visual imitation of World of Warcraft, comes a welter of free-to-play grindfests.

To distinguish itself, ArcheAge has been marketed as a “sandpark” - a mixture of a quest and mission-driven “theme park” and an open world “sandbox”.

I asked Hartsman what would attract players - and potentially payers - in a crowded market.

It's massive and gorgeous, for starters. But those I think are nice-to-haves - what people come back for is the gameplay. [ArcheAge] is a sandbox at its core, and by sandbox I mean players are the ones setting their own destiny. The game gives you a bunch of systems - housing, fighting, farming, trading, shipping, piracy, justice and so on. It's up to the players how they want to have fun on any given day.

So, the core of the game is that sandbox, but there is a layer of "theme park", which is intended to act as a guide - to teach players how to succeed in this world. So, if you think about it the way we do, it's a very “pre-westernized” version already. One thing we liked about it was that its gameplay translated to a western audience incredibly well, because there's the sheer variety of things to do, as well as guide posts if you want them. People who want to play the theme park elements can, but they don’t have to.

A pirate's life - ArcheAge promises extensive crafting and home building - and the chance to ravage others on the highs seas

Expanding on Lineage’s dynastic marriages, ArcheAge promises to let players build castles, claim territory, set up fiefdoms if they choose, and also to prey on the trade between fiefdoms as pirates. The judicial system for trying piracy and other cases is also player-driven rather than automated - players apply to be jurors and acquit or jail those accused of theft or killing members of their own faction. There have already been reports of jury-fixing and skullduggery. Which is, Hartsman argues, all part of the fun.

Social elements are the hallmark of a good sandbox game. If you look at EVE Online, say, it's all about the social aspects, and what people are doing for and to other players. ArcheAge is a lot like that, but in a fantasy world. You actually have more levels than you would in a "theme park" MMO.

In ArcheAge, for instance, you have your faction - unless you become a pirate, in which case you get evicted from your faction. You have your guild, where you can build and attack keeps, and defend others' keeps. You have your alliance - a group of guilds working together. And at the other end of the scale you have a small number of close friends that you can call your family. Those are all social constructs built into the game. Players who lean more towards PvE will want those, but PVP players will need them.

In EVE Online] there’s a universe out there, and all of the stories and the drama come from what the players are doing to and with each other. We've seen that in our alpha. It took mere hours from the time the alpha started for players to start screwing each other over, with other players rushing to their defence.

People get really worked up about that kind of thing. Some people cheer, some people get angry, but either way, humans provide humans with emotional reactions that are less predictable, but generally more intense, than what [scripted] content provides.

Journey to the West

As the publisher for North America, Europe, New Zealand and Australia - ArcheAge is being published in China by the Internet giant TenCent and in Russia by the London-listed Internet service mail.ru - Trion Worlds is responsible not only for the technical challenge of gauging demand and setting up servers, but also of shaping the game into something Western audiences can - and will want to - play.

The script of the game is over two million words, and some of that content really doesn't make sense when you take it to an another culture. So it's not just translating but editing so it would make sense to Western audiences.

Some companies send the text to an outsourcer, clean it up and put it in the game. We actually have teams of editors and writers on staff working in parallel with outside groups to literally go through and rewrite large chunks of content, and surface more lore in a way that's desired by western audiences. Western audiences traditionally want to hear about the game world, its gods and its history…

[Koreans] are used to consuming lore differently. In the native region, for example, there was an entire series of books that were written before the game was released, so they had a chance to read that beforehand. We put a lot of that into the game. And obviously there are cultural sensitivities - there are just some elements that just wouldn't translate well. A quest that would make perfect, intuitive sense to someone who was familiar with Korean fairy tales would not necessarily make sense to a Western player.